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TexasTowelie's JournalLesson on Islam sparks debate at Menomonie School Board meeting
MENOMONIE — Whether Islam should have been taught at the Menomonie Middle School dominated the school board meeting Monday.
Earlier this year Menomonie Middle School eighth grade students in language arts classes were assigned to read the book “I am Malala,” a memoir by a young Pakistani girl who pursued her education despite restrictive bans from the Taliban.
Malala became internationally famous when she was shot and nearly killed because she fought for her right to be educated. As Malala is a practicing Muslim, teachers asked a speaker to tell the students a bit about the religion of Islam to help them better understand the cultural context Malala lived in and her religious background.
Nearly 100 people attended Monday’s school board meeting. Many spoke in favor of diversity education, although a few expressed concerns that religion should largely be taught at home.
Read more: http://www.leadertelegram.com/News/Front-Page/2017/04/24/Lesson-on-Islam-sparks-debate.html
Lawsuit Filed Against Fox News Channel Alleges Racial Discrimination
Source: AP
NEW YORK — An expanded lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Fox News Channel of racial discrimination "that appears more akin to Plantation-style management than a modern-day work environment."
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court, adds eight former and current Fox employees to a case involving three former Fox workers and their accusations against a since-fired Fox financial executive. It also expands the case to include Dianne Brandi, Fox's chief counsel.
Fox News said it vehemently denies the allegations, calling them "copycat complaints." It said Brandi denies the claims against her.
The original lawsuit was filed in late March by two black women who worked in the network's payroll department, and a third colleague later joined it. The expanded lawsuit, incorporating the other employees, seeks unspecified compensatory damages and an elimination of unlawful employment practices at Fox.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lawsuit-filed-against-fox-news-channel-alleges-racial-discrimination-n751071
Wisconsin DOJ: James O'Keefe's Project Veritas tape did not show election law violations
MADISON – Covert videos of Democratic activists released in the run-up to last year’s presidential election showed no violations of Wisconsin laws, a review by the attorney general’s office found.
The blunt conclusion is at odds with how Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel initially reacted to the videos by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, who has a track record of mischaracterizing his recordings and was found guilty of a misdemeanor in 2010 over one of his operations.
Schimel’s office released a statement in October calling the actions by Democrats on the undercover videos “apparent violations of the law” and saying Schimel was “very concerned” about them.
But one of Schimel’s assistants came to the opposite conclusion when he reviewed the recordings.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/25/wisconsin-doj-james-okeefes-project-veritas-tape-did-not-show-election-law-violations/100885192/
Lawmakers look to help homeless, boost broadband
MADISON - Wisconsin would get a strategy for helping the homeless and would expand broadband internet into rural areas, under bills the Legislature's budget committee passed Monday.
From veterans to children, tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents experience homelessness every year, but the state has done little to coordinate its response to the problem or develop measures to track progress since a neglected 2007 plan by then-Gov. Jim Doyle's administration, advocates say.
That could start to change under legislation the Joint Finance Committee unanimously approved Monday.
Assembly Bill 234 would bring together eight agencies to target homelessness through a coordinating council to be chaired by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who has been working on the issue.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/24/lawmakers-look-help-homeless-disabled-teens/100838428/
Wisconsin Democrats see new energy, challenges
MADISON – In the first three months of this year, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin got money from twice as many new donors as she did in all of 2016 — more even than she did in her first full quarter as a Senate candidate in late 2011.
She’s done it while decrying President Donald Trump and while meeting with new liberal groups that didn’t exist last fall when Democrats were dealt a bitter defeat by Trump and other Republicans.
There’s renewed energy on the left — both in Wisconsin and in national races like last Tuesday’s special congressional election in Georgia. Its impact is already being felt in policy fights in Congress over issues such as Obamacare.
But will it reach all the way to Baldwin’s re-election bid in 2018? How about GOP Gov. Scott Walker's own re-election race?
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/22/wisconsin-state-democrats-see-new-energy-challenges/100748020/
Anti-government suspect declines to stand for judge in court
MADISON, Wis. - A Wisconsin man accused of stealing a cache of weapons and sending an anti-government manifesto to the White House failed to stand for a federal judge at his arraignment.
Joseph Jakubowski appeared in court in Madison Tuesday on felony possession and theft of firearms charges.
Jakubowski didn’t stand as Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker entered the court, nor did he speak during the brief arraignment. WKOW-TV reports that public defender, Joe Bugni, entered not guilty pleas on Jakubowski’s behalf.
Prosecutors say Jakubowski mailed a rambling manifesto to President Donald Trump then stole 18 firearms from a store in Janesville, April 4. He was arrested 10 days later while camping on private property in southwestern Wisconsin, about 140 miles from Janesville.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2017/04/25/anti-government-suspect-declines-stand-judge-court/100892476/
Scott Walker open to shifting more money to solve road woes
Gov. Scott Walker on Monday latched onto the possibility of funneling money from the state’s main account toward highways to try to help solve Wisconsin’s road funding woes.
Walker has vowed to veto any gas tax increase and on Monday downplayed the possibility of raising vehicle registration fees.
Instead, he told reporters he was working with his fellow Republicans in the Legislature to shift money from the state’s general fund to its transportation fund.
His comments opened up the possibility of a deal on transportation that has eluded Republicans for months, and a top legislative leader said he believed a proposal on funding roads would be made public in a couple of weeks.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/24/scott-walker-open-shifting-more-money-solve-road-woes/100843192/
Attorney: Downtown strip club fight could cost Milwaukee $10 million
The City of Milwaukee could pay more than $10 million in legal settlements in the fight over opening a strip club downtown, a strip club attorney says.
"As owners of several businesses in the city, we have no desire to see the city lose $10 million or more in legal settlements that will negatively affect city services," attorney Jeff Scott Olson wrote in a recent letter to a downtown business group.
He also dismissed five locations reportedly recommended by the downtown Milwaukee Business Improvement District, saying "none of these locations is appropriate for our needs."
"None is 'downtown,' which is the most basic of our criteria," Olson wrote in his April 19 letter to the BID.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2017/04/25/attorney-milwaukee-could-lose-10-million-over-downtown-strip-club-fight/100888242/
San Diego schools defend effort to fight Islamophobia
SAN DIEGO – One of the nation's largest school districts is defending its campaign to fight Islamophobia and promote understanding of Muslim culture against critics who said it is favoring a religion.
Kevin Beiser, vice president of the San Diego Unified School District board, said Tuesday that the effort is modeled on a plan he advanced several years ago to protect LGBT students. He said bullying of Muslim students is pervasive and vastly underreported.
"Muslim students are constantly being harassed, spit on, verbally abused, pushed, shoved, their hijabs are being pulled," he said, calling it a "serious problem probably in every public school in the country."
Critics planned a protest at Tuesday's school board meeting but no one in the audience rose to speak for or against the effort and there were no visible signs of opposition.
Read more: http://www.nwherald.com/2017/04/26/san-diego-schools-defend-effort-to-fight-islamophobia/ad65c8d/
House committee questions tech chief over funds transfer
Democrats on the Illinois House Appropriations-General Services Committee on Tuesday pounded Gov. Bruce Rauner’s technology chief over a transfer last fall of general revenue available for human-services bills to funds to pay computer vendors.
Chicago Democratic Rep. Will Guzzardi suggested the transfer of $71 million into special accounts for the use of the Department of Innovation and Technology were unnecessary. That is because the agency had about $85 million on hand to pay bills.
The transfer was made by lame-duck Republican Comptroller Leslie Munger after she lost a November special election to Democrat Susana Mendoza, who has been a thorn in Republican Rauner’s side over spending during a two-year budget stalemate.
Hardik Bhatt, secretary of the agency known as DoIT, pointed out to lawmakers that spending on technology aids human services and public safety.
Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20170425/house-committee-questions-tech-chief-over-funds-transfer
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